


Coronation Day

by KyeAbove



Series: King Of Bones AU [1]
Category: Magic Kaito, 名探偵コナン | Detective Conan | Case Closed
Genre: Aftermath of Violence, Alcohol, All Non-Platonic Relationships Are Background Or Minor, Angst and Tragedy, Animal Death, Animal Traits, Blood Drinking, Blood and Gore, Body Horror, Cannibalism, Character Death, Corpses, Cuddling & Snuggling, Curses, Dark, Dark Magic, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Dismemberment, Eye Trauma, Feral Behavior, Fluff and Angst, Gen, General Improper Use Of Human Bodies, Grief/Mourning, Harm to Children, Hurt/Comfort, Improper Use Of Bones, Improper Use Of Teeth, Insanity, It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better, Loss of Limbs, M/M, Magic, Memory Loss, Minor Hakuba Saguru/Kudou Shinichi | Edogawa Conan, Minor Momoi Keiko/Kudo Shinichi | Edogawa Conan, Minor Original Character(s), Mistaken Identity, Monsters, Non-Consensual Kissing, Other: See Story Notes, Past Hattori Heiji/Tooyama Kazuha, Past Relationship(s), Post-Black Organization Takedown (Meitantei Conan), Post-Conan Kudou Shinichi, Post-Divorce, Rated For Violence, Self-Harm, Stabbing, Supernatural Elements, To Be Edited, Transformation, Trauma, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Unwilling/Unwanted Cannibalism, Vomiting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-25
Updated: 2021-01-16
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:15:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 10
Words: 15,569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25501972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KyeAbove/pseuds/KyeAbove
Summary: Back in the late nineties, a boy and his parents went missing without a trace and nobody had seen them in the decades since. Saguru grew up hearing only brief mentions of his missing cousin, but it wasn't until after finishing high school and with a promising career ahead of him that his brother begged him to find the family. Saguru brought along his four friends to their last known location in an attempt to find a lead to their disappearance.Only Keiko left the house alive.After the takedown of the organization, Shinichi and Heiji founded their own detective agency.  When they are approached by a distraught Keiko as a last resort two years after her friends' deaths, their skills as detectives are put to the test. Her case leads them to a house full of the illogical and unreasonable. Of magic and curses.In searching for the true fates of Saguru, Kaito, Aoko, and Akako, they find no monster is more terrifying than a monster that was once a human, yet is now only a snarling beast out for blood.
Relationships: Hakuba Saguru/Kuroba Kaito | Kaitou Kid, Hattori Heiji/Kudou Shinichi | Edogawa Conan, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Series: King Of Bones AU [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1892836
Comments: 15
Kudos: 112





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> **Mind the tags and future scene warnings.** After the first couple chapters or so, this story is purely dark and highly disturbing for awhile, with a lot of uncomfortable descriptions, like several vomiting scenes, bad use of human bodies, and so much blood in places it doesn't belong.

_"....hey Aoko, it's Keiko. I'm still waiting outside for you four. I don't want to be stuck out here alone in the dark. Please text or call me back soon. It's been hours and I'm worried."_

_*beep*_

_"....Aoko, it's dark… Please answer me..."_

_*beep*_

_“....I heard screaming…!”_

_*beep*_

_“...Aoko I’ve called your dad. He’s trying to get a hold of you too. Please pick up….!”_

_*beep*_

_*beep*_

_*beep*_

_THE NUMBER YOU ARE TRYING TO REACH IS NO LONGER IN SERVICE_

* * *

The sun was usually more scalding on days such as this, yet today Shinichi had a pleasant warmth in which to read his book in peace. The pages had that smell only new books could have. It was a book he’d picked up just yesterday while walking back from a recent crime scene, and with the day settling soon into noon he finally had time to sit down and enjoy it.

His life now was busier than ever. The balcony of his new home overlooked a street that matched the constant rush of his life. Shinichi was able to put the hustle and bustle of the circadian lives of neighbours and passersby to the back of his mind as he flipped from page to page, putting together the clues already being presented between the lines.

It was a mid-morning delight of his to escape to the balcony even as he relished his line of work. As of the last year, Shinichi had secured his place as a revered detective with a long career ahead of him. He had even won the competition between he and Heiji as to who would move to the other’s home location to start their own detective agency together. Heiji had some choice words about coming to live in Tokyo for the foreseeable future, but he was just as happy with the arrangement as Shinichi was since it was a helpful distraction from all that happened with his now ex-wife.

They were riding off the success of being involved in tearing down a decades old and reaching organization. It had done wonders in the public eye for their own merit as detectives. Shinichi enjoyed all the cases thrown his way, but even enthusiasm could dampen in a passion. So Shinichi had these mid-morning coffee breaks on the balcony alone with nothing but a book to keep de-stressed. Now here at his new building, his new home, following his passion with his best friend, he felt at peace.

The balcony was empty except for the chair he had dragged out here upon first moving in. All alone with his book and his thoughts. Shinichi's eyes turned away from the page of his book as he considered how lucky he was to have gotten this far, and all that despite the odds against him.

All the trials were over. Shinichi was ready to move on and get on with his life. He was back in his proper body for good, having just turned twenty three properly. All those years as Edogawa Conan had changed things for worse and for better. Ran and he had decided some space between them was best for the time being. Nonetheless, she hadn’t been as mad as he thought she would be about the mess.

Plenty mad, justifiably so. Yet she’d mostly hugged him and was ecstatic that all this time he’d been okay. He’d thanked her profusely for that. He wouldn’t have made it this far in good mental health without her. She was off on the other side of the country right now, giving them the distance they needed, but she was always a phone call or text away.

Shinichi glanced at his phone, expecting a text from her to pop up as he was thinking about her, but nothing came. Just the time on the phone telling him his break was almost over. He knew she’d been tending more to Kazuha’s emotional needs lately anyhow, and he was quite sure she was more deserving of Ran’s time than he was.

The sound of the balcony sliding door opening broke his gaze from his phone. Heiji poked out his head. “Kudo, we have a client coming in, in about an hour if that’s alright with you.”

That was short notice but Shinichi knew there had to be an interesting case bubbling under the surface of that statement. Very infrequently was a short notice anything but engaging. Even desperate people rarely thought anything of booking appointments in advance.

Shinichi stood up, limbs cracking and straining in the movement, and put his bookmark in to save his page. “Do you know the sort of case?”

“She said it’s a missing persons case.” Heiji answered, rubbing his newly grown facial hair in thought. “More than one person, but she didn’t say much else.” Not their usual sort of case, but a mystery was a mystery, and Shinichi was always ready to discover the one truth to anything in his path.

“Do we have time in our schedule to take it on?” Shinichi asked as he followed Heiji into the apartment. He placed his book onto a side table and scanned around the many case files covering the coffee table, and breathed in the feeling of accomplishment.

This was his future. Not years and years more of lying to people. It would be him and Heiji against the world, and guiltily Shinichi considered how he was cited in Heiji’s divorce proceedings as the best proof of that.

A missing persons case would be a break from murderers and thieves and personal issues, even if it was a sudden addition. He just wanted to be sure Heiji also wanted anything to do with the case.

“We can make time.” Heiji grinned, walking over and starting to move the files into an orderly pile. “This sounds interesting compared to another theft of an insured art piece.”

Shinichi agreed heavily with that. With a missing persons case, there was the chance of bringing back something with much more worth than a diamond. A life was worth more than any price tag in the world.

They tidied up the apartment as they waited out the hour, wanting to not let their workload deter a potential client. Within the hour there was a quiet knock on their door. Heiji darted for the door, and smoothed back his hair while fixing his tie as Shinichi chuckled fondly at his antics. Joining him at the entrance, Shinichi adjusted his glasses, a hold over from his days as Conan and now something that felt too signature to drop.

Heiji opened the door with a reminding creak that there was much to fix up around the place. Their client was a short woman with deep bags under her eyes and unkempt hair that looked split by nervous fingers, clutching a packed file like a lifeline.

Despite this Shinichi found her quite beautiful. He smiled at her in a friendly manner as she began to speak. “H-hello. I’m Momoi Keiko. I hope I’m not too early?” She was eschewing their welcoming gaze whenever she could, and shaking in place with nervousness.

Heiji kept trying to catch her gaze but Shinichi respected her standoffishness and didn't offer the same potential anxiety. Shinichi put out his hand to shake her own, and she hesitated at first, but put out her hand and shook his. “Not at all. Hattori, show Momoi-san to a seat.” Shinichi let go of Keiko’s hand after a slight longer lingering contact, and gestured to the seating area.

Keiko let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding in and she smiled slightly at Shinichi but it didn't reach her eyes. She knew how these meetings ended, with her laughed out of the office for her claims. This was her last resort, and final heartbreak.

“Sure thing.” Grin still holding, Heiji gently led Keiko to sit down, and they sat down on the couch across from her. After a few moments of silence as they regarded her, Heiji began to question her. “So, a missing persons case. Why choose us? We’re usually murder detectives and all.” Shinichi would dabble in other cases sometimes, but Heiji especially kept to only murders and helping Shinichi with his own cases.

Keiko sniffled, her body still tense even as she settled better into the chair. “I know. That’s why...chances are, they are dead so your skills would be needed here, but I sometimes hope…” Keiko paused, and tried to piece together her thoughts. She had so many things to say and so little emotional will to keep going from here. Nearly two years to the day and she could only think about what she lost and not what this meeting could gain her.

“Take you time.” Shinichi told her softly, knowing now better than ever that kindness was what was needed most in a case. Not intelligence. Not drive. Compassion.

Keiko finally looked them in the eyes, focusing most on Shinichi, and held the folder close tight to keep herself calm. “I chose you because you knew one of the people missing. I thought you might take the case on that merit.” She mumbled, thumbing the folder like a precious burden.

“...what?” Heiji’s tone begged for a quick answer to his confusion. Shinichi’s face mirrored Heiji’s words but he nodded for her to continue.

Put at some ease by their interest, Keiko unwrapped her limbs and placed the folder onto the coffee table and opened to the front. On top of all the papers, was a intently placed photograph. Heiji and Shinichi learned forward to get a good look at the scene. It was somewhere later in the day, with a group standing in front of a house.

Four people, all clearly happy with life. Two young women, one with a sharp gaze and the other inviting and friendly. Then there was another person with magenta streaks among brown hair that neither could place from appearance alone on the gender binary

Between them all, the familiar face of fellow detective Hakuba Saguru.

They looked at Keiko with matching looks of dismay and curiosity. She acknowledged that she was serious with a silent dip of her head and downcast, pleading eyes. “That’s my case. Do as you please with the request.”

Both had heard a bit about Hakuba’s disappearance, spoken of in half whispers by many people in the detective trade, but had heard none of the details. Heiji himself had assumed Hakuba had gone back to England and good riddance to that, doing no research. Shinichi as well had more than enough to deal with to look further into it when it had crossed his path.

Clearly a mistake now. Shinichi took his eyes off the photo, and once again regarded Keiko. She held like an average civilian. No rough, calculating gaze. No high class status look to her. Yet she seemed to have been on at least friendly terms with Hakuba to have a photo of him smiling without a hint of snob.“Yes, we knew Hakuba. Is...is he really missing?”

Keiko nodded, tugging at her clothes to try and divert from how anxious she felt telling them all this, then gazed off into the distance. "He is. So are the other three.”

“What happened?” Heiji questioned, unable to believe what sort of force could catch Hakuba off guard. Especially one that wasn’t heavily publicized since Heiji had not heard any horrible details concerning the disappearance. Even with apathy that most detectives held for Hakuba, something tragic would have spread like fire.

Keiko reached over and touched the photo with a further lost look in her eyes. “Hakuba-kun heard a case of a family who disappeared in the early nineties, and their mansion had been left abandoned. We were a budding group of detectives and it seemed so much like our previous cases.”

A bunch of nearly no-names against the world. That world ended up destroying them.

Keiko pointed to one of the women, “Akako-chan swore that the mansion was cursed and insisted they go look over the place together.” Keiko pointed to the magenta striped brunet. “Kuroba-kun invited himself along for whatever reason even though he hated cases like these.” Keiko pointed to the other brunette.“Aoko was invited too, and I tagged along since all my best friends were going. We went into the mansion to look for clues. We got lost.”

She flashed back to that day. It felt like the floor plan was changing with every step and she had been so scared and Aoko had held her and told her things would be alright.

“I...doubled back to follow what I thought was the exit and it was, but that was the last time I ever saw them. They never came out. I texted and called them all so many times. Nobody ever picked up or texted back.” Keiko sniffled again, then dropped the most unsettling phrase of all. “It's been two years."

Someone they’d interacted with regularly enough had been properly missing for two years, and they hadn’t even noticed. Shinichi felt terrible about that. Heiji felt angry and upset with himself.

Heiji clenched his fist and lowered it to the table, flexing it as he processed it all. “Two years...you want us to find out what happened?” It felt wrong to him that Heiji held Hakuba up as a rival and he’d been gone.

Keiko’s tears finally fell in cascades across her cheeks, and she rubbed at her eyes as she cried.

“Yes! Bring them home if you can...even though there’d be nothing but bones at this point. I have all the case files Hakuba-kun had been going through at the time that might help. I have the money to pay-”

“We won’t be accepting payment for this.” Shinichi cut in, leaning over and handing her a box of tissues that they kept on the coffee table for clients. Heiji and Keiko looked at him shocked, for different reasons.

“Really?” Both said together. Keiko looked relieved as she rubbed the tissue around her eyes, while Heiji looked affronted.

“It’s Hakuba. A fellow detective, and he was nice to Conan, remember?” Shinichi reasoned in an affirmative tone. Shinichi had seen Hakuba fake dead once, for a case, and it left him deeply unsettled to know that was likely true as of now. For such a case, he wouldn’t feel right charging money.

Heiji was bewildered. “But Kudo. Hakuba was a huge jerk and he-”

“Hattori.” Shinichi told Heiji off sharply and gestured to Keiko. She shook it off, wiping her tears with a tissue.

“No, I understand that Hakuba-kun could come off like...well, a jerk. But he was...my friend. There are more than just me looking for a resolution to him. To all my friends. If you won’t let me pay, I have to do something at least-”

“I would see you coming to us in the first place as more than enough. We never would have thought to look into Hakuba’s disappearance. And the others.” Shinichi picked up the photograph, and studied it closer. “You’re not in this. Did you take the photo Momoi-san?”

“Yes, it's from just before we went into the mansion.”

Shinichi held it so Heiji, who was in the process of invading his personal space, could also see it and form his own theories. Shinichi could tell from how closely everyone was standing to each other, that it was a photo between close friends. Shinichi had been unaware Hakuba had any. He always seemed just unlikeable enough despite his skills to not hold onto anyone that wasn’t an associate detective.

Hakuba was standing tall, and if Shinichi was going to guess, he’d gotten even taller between when they had worked together and this picture-perfect moment. His hair was much shaggier and casual than he’d ever been seen with by either Shinichi or Heiji, and he had a clover-shaped hair clip keeping his bangs out of his eyes. He was half-smiling without a trace of smug.

Kuroba was leaning against Hakuba for support as he reached up to do bunny ears above his head, and the glint in his eyes was…familiar?

For that matter, behind Kuroba’s long hair half fallen out of its ponytail, the entire face seemed familiar. Much like his own from a glance.

Two years…

Hadn’t that been how long since the last proven KID heist? That look in Kuroba’s eyes spoke of a type of mischief Shinichi had only ever seen clearly in KID. Shinichi put that bit of info aside for now, but it was a theory to approach when he had more information.

“So this is the last known photo of them then. Was there any signs of them after they disappeared?”

“No, none.” Keiko spoke quietly of this fact, wishing it wasn’t the truth.

There was no going around this. Shinichi put down the photo with a strong resolve in his heart.

“We’ll take the case.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shinichi and Heiji go through the files brought to them of the case, and discover more secrets than just those of the main matter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is one last set up chapter before things start going downhill in chapter 3.

Among the folder were many more photos, familiarizing Shinichi and Heiji with the four missing people. They were all vibrant and fully of life. It was a look they'd never seen on Hakuba before. Keiko told them many stories to go along with the photos. Of better times and better lives.

There were a plethora of group photos among the singular ones. Some didn't contain all of them, and there was one even of the four plus Keiko. It had to have been taken more proximate to when they'd last seen Hakuba, as his expression was still the familiar grumpy and his hair was shorter. He seemed mildly exasperated by Kuroba sitting on his lap and resting his head on his shoulder, compared to later photos where they were all over each other.

The photos and Keiko’s stories told them much about the victims of time. Nakamori Aoko had been vibrant and wicked smart. Koizumi Akako had been seemingly cold but truly very loving. Kuroba Kaito had been a trickster god among humans. Hakuba Saguru had been human, not some robot programmed to solve crimes.

Heiji nudged Shinichi, and held up a photo of Hakuba holding a small white kitten up to his face and nuzzling it. He whispered in Shinichi’s ear. "It just sucks. I'm finding out Hakuba wasn't as much as a jerk as he acted around me and he's not even around anymore for me to enjoy that."

Shinichi picked up a photo of Kuroba in a KID branded hoodie doing card tricks. He also spoke quietly, in case Keiko didn’t know. He didn’t want to tarnish her memory of her friend. “I understand that. Kuroba…I suspect he might have been the Kaitou KID I chased."

"Really?” Heiji blinked rapidly, and looked at the photo, and his own gaze turned affirmative as he agreed with Shinichi. There was just too much KID energy in this person to ignore. “Damn.”

"I feel the same as you do. I get to see a look at the true personality of my rival and he's gone." Shinichi looked deep into the soul of the photo. Kuroba was so filled with clear joy for whatever day he faced. A day hopefully long before tragedy.

Shinichi hadn’t felt much when KID’s heists ceased. It was never his main goal, so he found other things to do with his time when there were no longer heists. Now, there was a deep sense of false closure, because KID hadn’t completed his own goal and vanished into the shadows. It didn’t seem real. KID was a living myth, and the person behind him was most likely dead. 

Shinichi put down the photograph and they both chose other photos.

Heiji scrutinized a photo of Kuroba sitting on top of Hakuba’s shoulders so he could reach a cat, the same white kitten from another photo, stuck in a tree. From how well Kuroba was gripping with just his legs and balancing, it didn’t seem unlikely he had the strength to climb the tree instead. It was very possible they’d chosen the shoulder sitting position willingly and not as their only option. Heiji flashed the photo at Shinichi, who had his finger on his chin as he inspected a photo of the girls being teased by Kuroba.

"Hey, Kudo…" Shinichi looked up and looked at the photo."This Kuroba guy….you think he was Hakuba's boyfriend? Never took him for the type but they do seem pretty close."

Shinichi looked at the position, and something he recalled from before sprang up at him. He picked up a second photograph from the table.

"I'd actually say much more than a boyfriend," Shinichi added on to Heiji's deduction, and pointed to a sudden ring that appeared on Kuroba's hand in the photos Shinichi was browsing through that wasn’t in previous photos. They turned to Keiko, who went silent and simply watched when they started to deduct, for corroboration to their theory.

“It was romantic between them. Nothing more than that.” Keiko grabbed a photo too, and showed off a scene of Kuroba half asleep with Hakuba fully asleep, half on Kuroba and half off the couch they were on. The two girls were sitting on the floor smiling at the camera. Smiling at Keiko or whoever else could have taken the photograph. There was snack food and bottles of drinks strewn around the floor. A movie night then. “It took a lot of work to gain the trust between us, and it just...we all could have been something great. Our own mysteries to solve. Then, this…”

Keiko knew she needed to push towards the big picture. The house that haunted her for two years. Keiko pulled out a file within the folder, and opened it for them to see. A more detailed case of the missing family. Shinichi and Heiji both poured over it.

The family that had lived in the house contained a mother, a father, and a smiling little boy, and Shinichi thought of his detective boys. This boy was just around the age he'd unfortunately been reverted to when he met them and even now that the detective boys were older, Shinichi hated children in cases. It always made things that much more unfortunate.

The boy would have been just a few years older than Shinichi now. In a better life, they likely would have crossed paths. The cursed mansion wasn't entirely too far from the Kudo Mansion, still located in Beika. Would they have known each other, or just be strangers in the street? It was something he didn't want to dwell on too much.

They had just disappeared into thin air. There were false leads and claims that went nowhere but no actual trace of the family had ever turned up. There was no evidence they ever left the house on the day after they were last seen.

Shinichi put down the photo of the family. “You said there were no outside traces of your friends after they went into the house, correct?” He inquired of Keiko, who nodded.

“Yes. Nothing. Not even any texts or posts online from accounts of theirs I was aware of. Just sudden silence from all of them.”

Shinichi and Heiji both knew now that whatever the result of this mystery, it all came down to the house. 

“The same as the family. You said your one friend claimed the house was cursed?” Shinichi wasn’t usually one to believe in magic in the past, but after spending years as a child from poison, he was willing to admit that logic didn’t need to discount the seemingly impossible. 

Neither did Heiji counter this question, as he’d taken on more supernatural inspired cases in the past and had even pointed out the possible curse behind their habit of discovering corpses in weird places. Heiji had yet to encounter real magic but was fascinated by the idea of coming to that close. 

“I’m not a witch so I didn’t understand any details of the curse part. But...Akako-chan and Hakuba-kun were both witches so when they say something is involved with magic, I just had to smile and accept it since they were the experts.” She spoke rapidly at the end, and looked ashamed of saying it. 

There was no definition in the files for what the group had defined as a witch, so Shinichi could only assume it was the most wide-spread term. To equate that with Hakuba sounded strange to voice so he let it simmer in his head.

“Do you happen to have either of their spellbooks or magical things?” Heiji asked, leaning forward more in his interest. 

Keiko looked at them like they were the crazy ones for such a direct request.

“...no. I didn’t think you’d take that aspect seriously to be honest. Everything is easily accessible if you do need it.” Keiko knew that there was no way Hakuba’s nanny would have thrown out any of his possessions. She was one of the few who still believed somewhere, somehow, her boy was alive.

“Then we’ll collect them later.” Heiji told Keiko excitedly, and she seemed pleased with the answer. This response had never happened with any other detective.

Going through Keiko’s folder went into the evening, looking over and deciding what were the strongest leads. Most of the files were generic police reports or print outs of news articles, but there was one paper clipped set of papers that was covered in Hakuba’s messy scrawl.

Hakuba had a very strong opinion on the case, and they would have expected nothing less. What they didn’t expect even knowing he was a so called ‘witch’ was his strong opinion to firmly be the magic theory. Hakuba was clear in his notes that the circumstances matched up with a curse. He made several mentions of Koizumi agreeing with him.

“So magic, huh?” Heiji pondered. He’d come across enough in his experiences to easily accept the claim, but hearing it from Hakuba was unsettling. In Heiji’s mind, Hakuba was to be the no nonsense and stubborn theoried detective who believed only in straight logic. Now it was becoming clear to Heiji that not only was Hakuba far more dynamic of mind, he wasn't even that straight.

The most damning evidence towards that were arrest records of all five and mug shots. Nakamori looked horrified, as did Keiko. Koizumi looked annoyed, and Kuroba was smiling for the camera. Hakuba was grinning.

“Hey what did you all get arrested for?”

Keiko looked down at her lap and blushed. “...trespassing.” Keiko admitted sheepishly, with an aura that wasn't the full story at all.

“That’s fair.” 

“It was for a case too.” Keiko insisted as Shinichi pulled a photo of the house alone from the files. It was just an average looking mansion. And it had killed seven innocent people.

By six pm, Shinichi and Heiji felt they had learnt enough about the case, and insisted on going to get a book on magic. Keiko had texted ahead to Hakuba’s nanny that they would be coming over and by six thirty they were standing in the packed up room of Hakuba Saguru, digging through boxes. 

It felt wrong, but it was for the right reasons. An invasion of privacy of a dead man. 

Baaya was off elsewhere brewing tea for the three young adults while they rummaged under the careful eye of a man that refused to identify himself, past when they caught him calling Baaya as mum. He looked enough like her, with the same birdish nose and the curve of their jaws and even shared gray hair even though otherwise the man didn’t even look out of his thirties, with only a few remaining wisps of brown to show for it.

Keiko knew who this man was. She had met him before in the past, but respected that he wouldn’t want to make himself too noticeable around detectives. His previous career was less than savory and even though he had limited what he did now that he was back in contact with his mother, he was at a danger around them. Yet, he still chose to stick close, petting a sleeping white cat curled up in his arms, to make sure they didn’t disturb everything Hakuba once held dear. There was zero fear in his eyes of the detectives in front of him. 

These detectives were the kindest Keiko had ever encountered. Keiko had tried again and again to hire better detectives than herself to recover the bodies of her friends. She could never enter that mansion herself. The very thought made her sick and near tears, and a force pushed her back again and again. 

Yet the police thought it was all a lie and refused to look into it. Even Hakuba’s own father assumed that Hakuba had simply ran off with Kuroba to some other country, as he would loudly talk about at parties and appearances on television.

Akako had no biological family to miss her. 

Only one person believed her. Nakamori Ginzo, who had held her many times when she cried, and cried himself too. He’d lost Aoko to that mansion, and even considered himself team dad to the other three. Ginzo had tried many times to get inside but was never given entry despite his fight and rage. So they tried sending others, thinking it was the curse blocking them. Meeting after meeting, she was laughed out of the offices.

Now she was in Hakuba’s old house, digging through packed boxes of his possessions, with his nanny’s blessing. Helped by two detectives who believed her claims. She felt breathless at the very thought. Two years after first being denied, she had found help that not only believed that her friends had disappeared in that mansion but that they had also been involved in magic. 

Hattori Heiji seemed to see her both as a person and a missed paycheque and it made her feel bad Kudo Shinichi had denied needing payment. When this was all over, if they wouldn’t allow her to pay them directly, she would be showering them with gifts for life.

“If I’d known Hakuba was a witch I would have tried to reason with him more.” Heiji picked up a stack of notes and looked at them with further disbelief than what had already crossed his face at the sight of his name on the notes. He flipped through them, shaking his head. “Hakuba has an entire stack of notes on ways he could have smited me and put spells on me. I’d call him a coward for not doing it, but he’s missing and all…” The unsaid words of possibly dead hung in his tone. 

“Would you have wanted to be turned into a frog?” Shinichi asked as he looked over some of the lines. 

“No, but at least I would have done something spectacular to push Hakuba that far.” 

Keiko remembered when Hakuba had slammed those notes down in front of them all. They’d laughed for ages reading over them, Hakuba smug about successfully entertaining his friends. She laughed now then, smiling at the fond memory. “He did that as a joke. His magic wasn’t that powerful. He could cast base spells at most and that was sometimes too hard on him.” 

Heiji looked disappointed, and placed the notes down and went elsewhere in the room while Shinichi stayed where he was, chuckling a bit himself. “Well, that’s good. I doubt anyone would be pleased if Hattori was a frog.”

“Except him, it seems.”

“Hattori is just like that.” Shinichi gestured in an erratic way as if to prove Heiji a madman, but in a more fond way than anything with malice.

“You seem to like him very much. Taking on cases with him...” Keiko thought about how much she had enjoyed it, spending time with her friends but changing little parts of the world one case at a time. It hadn’t gone without hurt. They had been hurt, arrested, and she was even standing here today because they were all likely dead. But they’d gone down trying to bring to rest the memories of people who had nobody to care they were gone. 

“Well, he is my best friend. I’d go down any path with him...unless he has plans of going rouge, but he’s not that sort of person.” Shinichi only thought the best of Heiji, and nothing would ever shake that faith. 

Keiko nodded along at the feeling. She had believed in her own friends wholeheartedly. Enough to believe even two years later that she had to keep fighting to save them. From across the room, Heiji announced he had found a thick tomb finally not in Hakuba’s handwriting, and Keiko now had higher hopes that her wish could be fulfilled.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shinichi and Heiji enter the mansion and find their first clues. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is where the warnings come into play. In this chapter there are bones and descriptions of destruction to them.

It would take a lot out of them to carry around a backpack of files and the book with them into the mansion but they didn't have the time to digitize it all. Even with two years past, there was a sense of urgency to go look at the scene.

Brave as she could be, Keiko came with them as far as the front gate before tears blinded her and she kept backing up away from the property. It was too much and too close to that horrible day. 

"I can...I can't. The last time I went in there my friends probably died. I...I'll wait out here like I did with them. But please be back before nightfall. That's when the screaming started." Keiko couldn't hold her composure in and shook as a flash of buried trauma caught her. She remembered getting lost, finding the exit. Leaving alive but _alone._ "I hate waiting but I-" 

“Momoi-san. There’s no reason to put yourself under more stress.” Shinichi walked to her place and took out his notebook and wrote down an address and his phone number. He ripped it out of the book. "You've done all you need to. There's no need any longer to be the girl who waited. If you won’t be following us in, I have friends nearby who would be delighted to entertain you if you do wish to stick close to the area. Although Agasa may get overly excited if you show interest in his inventions. Just tell them I sent you" Shinichi smiled at her and slipped the note into her hands.

She looked at him in surprise and admiration. "I…and I can trust these people?" She seemed unsure with the very idea. Shinichi guessed with such a tale she must have received much critique in many aspects. 

_"With your life._ And when we get back out, before nightfall, we will meet you there and discuss whatever we've found." Shinichi placed a comforting hand on her shoulder and she looked at him in further awe. Shinichi was so kind to her, didn’t regard her with too much pity, and she felt overwhelmed. A stranger simply showing kindness was all he was, and yet it meant so much to her. She didn’t know how to say it. 

A blush crossed her face and after a moment's thought of how close they were getting, so did a blush cross Shinichi's face. He stepped away a bit although his hand remained on her shoulder. 

“I’ll text you as soon as we find anything. You will be the first to know.”

Keiko looked over Shinichi’s shoulder at the looming mansion. “I...I’d like that very much. Um...thank you so much for all that you're doing for me and my friends, and their families." 

"...you're very welcome." Shinichi's hand lingered just a second longer before he ridgely pulled it away. Their eyes stayed equal for a moment, before they stepped away from each other entirely. 

Feeling a little lighter, Keiko waved to Heiji and then went off to follow the paper’s directions to Agasa’s house. Shinchi went back to Heiji’s side. 

“Very smooth, Kudo.” Heiji’s eyes traveled with Keiko. “Even knowing Hakuba wasn’t that bad, it’s still wild to me that a grump like him and someone soft like her hung out.” Heiji mused, playing over the scene in his head. He just couldn’t see the Hakuba he knew being friends with Keiko. 

Shinichi shrugged his shoulders. “We don’t know her past or all her trauma. She could have been different two years ago. We don’t even know what Hakuba was exactly like two years ago.”  
  
“True.” Not sounding fully convinced Heiji pushed open the gate and the rusty creek felt like a warning bell. They were not welcome here. 

On they went into the unkept yard. Even after all the decades that had passed, there were all sorts of clear signs that a child had lived here. Old toys were strewn among the grass and the weeds, nearly lost and aged to time. Outlasting their owner still. 

They traversed the yard looking for clues, exchanging photos back and forth as they tried to locate items from the photos around the yard. Finding any sign of the missing people on the outside would point to what they might find on the inside. 

Near a back cellar door, they found a necklace. It was aged but not as much as the other objects in the yard. After photographing it, Shinichi put on a glove and picked it up. It dimly glinted in the sun. Heiji immediately recognized it. “That Nakamori girl wore that in the photo of them in front of the mansion.”  
  
Shinichi pictured the photo in question in his mind and knew Heiji was right. He focused on the cellar door. “The lock is broken.” The lock in question lay discarded beside the doors. “Momoi-san never said if they went in through the front door, did she?”

“No, she didn’t. So at least Nakamori entered this way or someone with her necklace did. Do we go in this way too?” Heiji kicked the door, and drummed loudly and yet again like a warning. 

“Let's follow the trail we know of.” Shinichi took out an evidence bag and put the necklace in it. After marking down the bag, it went into the back pack. 

With a bit of effort between them, Shinichi and Heiji managed to pull up the doors. A musty dark smell wafted up at them as they looked down at a staircase. “Well, this is it.” 

Heiji went down first, turning on the flashlight on his phone. Shinichi did the same when he followed and the stairs still proved too dark to traverse. It didn’t take long to reach the bottom. Flashing their phones around, they found they were in an empty basement. 

Just a lot of dust and no further clues had them leaving the area quickly enough, and they ended up in a long corridor with no doorways except for one at the very end. Upon reaching it, they felt an eerie feeling cross them. 

“Something’s not right here, Kudo.”  
  
“I know Hattori. It’s our only way through unless you want to turn back and try the front door.” Shinichi suggested, only giving Heiji the option. He already knew Heiji’s answer before he spoke.  
  
“I’m not that scared. Just sayin’ something isn’t right.” Heiji switched out his phone for a proper flashlight and Shinichi did the same as Heiji himself opened the door. They stepped into the new room and split apart as they placed out what sort of room it could have been. 

Heiji’s gasp stopped all of Shinichi’s theories, and he sharply looked at where Heiji had his flashlight pointed already.

“Kudo, she was right…” 

Skeletal remains. Human arm bones from a glance. Shinichi went over briskly and took a picture and then inspected the bones. There were old and yellowed bandages and a KID branded bracelet in broken links scattered along with the bones. 

Shinichi pulled out the notes they had of the four, and Heiji shined his flashlight so Shinichi could properly view the information. Damaged arm. KID bracelet. KID branding pointed to Kuroba but as it turned out the group had been attacked before and only one of them had been stabbed in the arm. Kuroba had been stabbed too, but it was in his side.

Providing further evidence for who this arm belonged to, from continued inspection of the photos, it was not only Kuroba who wore KID branded wear. If it were in better circumstances, Shinichi would have laughed at the absurdity that Hakuba Saguru had gone from being one of KID’s greatest critics to wearing a bracelet in his image. 

"I think…this has to be Hakuba’s arm."

Heiji swore loudly and his hand began to shake. He didn’t know how to process this information, but he couldn’t look away yet from what remained of his rival although the desire was growing.. 

Shinichi flipped through more of the notes Keiko jotted down on her friends’ behaviour. Hakuba was strange, it seemed. He has been stabbed in the arm trying to protect Kuroba, but the wound healed easily enough. Yet the routine of wrapping bandages remained even with no injury. Something Keiko provided as a ‘comfort’, whatever that meant. 

They inspected the arm more, and Heiji noticed something right away. "Kudo. I'm no expert with bones but look at the place where it severed." Shinichi looked at what Heiji was pointing out and cringed. There were marks that could have only been made by teeth. It was not human teeth marks. Neither were sure whether that was a comfort or not.

“He was attacked. Maybe the first to be.”  
  
It did not sit right with either to wonder what could have attacked. 

“So Hakuba lost an arm. That’s survivable...right?” 

Shinichi wanted to agree with Heiji, but something peeking out from under a nearby fabric dashed any of those hopes. He gestured to the area and Heiji pointed the flashlight at the area. A large hole stricken blanket was laid out and had a few suspiciously placed lumps under it.

They pulled up the blanket and there were more bones. No skull, no pelvis, but some ribs, spine, and the legs. 

No, there was the pelvis. Parts of it at least. It had been shattered. 

Why the arm wasn’t with the rest of the corpse, they could only theorize for now, but it was clear from the evidence that Hakuba Saguru had died a brutal and painful death. 

Heiji felt sick, but didn’t want to show it. Shinichi was able to keep taking photos but Heiji closed his eyes. He wanted to remember his rival as the smug man he’d been, not the shattered remains under a flashlight. 

Then he kicked something in his nervous shuffling. Opening his eyes and pointing the flashlight down, at his feet was Hakuba’s pocket watch. 

Shinichi picked it up and stood up. He dangled the pocket watch between them and shined the light on it. The broken face of it was a mirror of the knowledge that someone who could have been a friend of theirs in a better lifetime was dead. Broken body, broken pocket watch. Broken life. 

“This is all so screwed up. What did he do to deserve th-”

Something creaked. Shinichi and Heiji froze up, and a deep shiver of fear entered them. They turned around to face the sound, flashlights following, hoping that it was just the house settling or some animal woken up by their trespassing on its home. 

The only thing they saw before the sharp object coming towards them was a pair of enraged blue eyes. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And finally we reach the very thing that I wrote this entire AU for.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shinichi and Heiji find a survivor. What’s left of them, anyhow. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for this chapter are even worse. To restate the tags, just general misuse of human body parts. As well as violence. Also, there is a kiss that is _not_ intended as a shippy kiss or anything romantic. Just one of confusion and desperation. It is a one-off moment to reflect how bad things are mentally here and it's actually rather plot relevant for reasons later in the story. But still not shippy. Trust me on this.

They only just barely managed to dodge the attack, and only because Heiji had grabbed Shinichi and dropped them both to the floor in a roll. Even being the shorter of the two now, Heiji wrapped himself around Shinichi to shield him. Shinichi squirmed a little bit but seemed to understand Heiji's attempts to crush him were to keep him safe.

As Heiji's hands were busy wrapped around Shinichi, Shinichi rapidly grabbed for the flashlight and pointed it around looking for their attacker. Dead on in front of them was a hunched over, dirty creature. Standing on two legs, heavily breathing as it studied the, with those haunting blue eyes. The very human shaped eyes went between studying them and glancing down at the blanket with something akin to sadness.

Sad was all that Heiji felt looking at this thing.

Heiji could see now where much of Hakuba's missing bones could have ended up. No skull upon anything but there were teeth strung up on the creature’s arms as wrist braces and not all looked to be from one mouth, dashing what little hopes Heiji had for the others not being scattered bones as well. The knife in the creature's hands was clearly carved from bone, and the skeleton on the floor was missing the arms. Upon the creature's head was a crown of ribs and more teeth. It gave the creature considerable height despite being hunched over.

He would have emptied his stomach right there and then if not for Shinichi being under him and in danger of both the creature and being in the spill zone. 

The creature made its decision as Shinichi and Heiji stayed deathly still. It leaned down and reached a hand, five fingers and blunt long nails, to grab the blanket. It pulled the blanket back over the bones and gave them a fierce glare.

Heiji found his words first. "...sorry?" From what Heiji could tell, the creature was more concerned with the bones than with them. Its eyes lingered on the blanket for a second before looking back at them. The creature looked confused, and tapped at its own mouth, clearly searching for words but nothing was released from the uncomfortable silence.

This creature. That had blue eyes that stood against layers of grim and what looked like dried blood. That had five fingers. That stood upright. A ring on one of its hands. It was protective over the body of Hakuba Saguru...

Heiji and Shinichi had the same sinking horrible thought at the very same time but it was Shinichi to voice it first.

"Kuroba?" Shinichi asked in a whisper and the creature titled its head at Shinichi. It looked more like the creature was reacting to the sound rather than the name. "Kuroba, it's me. Conan. Tantei-kun. I know I look a little bigger but I'm me."

The only thing that hurt more than the flash of recognition was how quickly that expression left the creature's face. Kuroba huffed and pointed the knife directly at them. There was nothing but a clear threat to leave, _or else._

"Dude, we came here to find you and your friends. We're not your enemy." All of Heiji's words seemed to fly over Kuroba's head. There was a huge sense of disconnect in Kuroba's entire being.

He looked human but he didn't feel like one anymore. All the more reason to speak carefully and get him out of this place as soon as possible.

“We can take you home. The exit is just over there.” Shinichi pointed in through the darkness and then moved the flashlight to where the door was.

 _Was_ being the exact phrase of words. Where the door they’d just entered from had so recently been was now a blank wall. Thinking maybe his sense of direction had been temporarily winded by the shock and horror of the situation, Shinichi pointed the flashlight at all parts of the room. There was no door at all.

“Looks like we’ll need to take a look at that magic book once we now Kuroba isn’t going to kill us as soon as I let you go.” Heiji released one hand and patted at the backpack still in its proper place.

“I’ll say. Kuroba, please put down the knife and we can talk.” Shinichi tried to seem as civil and kind as he could, unsure of Kuroba’s exact mental state, so it was best to tread carefully. Further proving that he did still understand human speech, Kuroba looked offended at the very idea of letting go of the knife.

Then Kuroba screeched, backed up away from them, and hunched over further. He was trying to seem as small as he possibly could. Trying to hide even as the flashlight kept him in their view.

It was so pathetic and pitiful to see the very embodiment of trickery and fun reduced to a sniffling ball of angst on the floor. Shinichi squirmed out of Heiji’s grasp, and crawled over to Kuroba. “Please, Kuroba-san. We can help you.” Shinichi had so many questions. Was anyone else alive? What happened? What attacked you? Yet he knew pressuring Kuroba would only put his heart closer to that knife.

Kuroba uncurled himself, and regarded Shinichi with suspicious glances and light hissing once Shinichi got too close. The hissing itself sounded inhuman, moreso like his and Heiji’s pet cat. For Shinichi this was just further proof that this was Kuroba and that Kuroba was KID. If Kuroba could mimic any voice, then any cat sound would be just as easy.

Shinichi finally managed to inch right close to Kuroba. He didn’t dare to lay a hand directly on Kuroba. He did though reach for Kuroba’s knife and use Kuroba’s still fear to pluck it from his hand and toss it aside. Kuroba gasped, and hissed louder this time. He pushed Shinichi back in anger.

Lacking his knife, Kuroba pulled out a very familiar card gun from somewhere and pulled the trigger. No card came flashing out, and the realization it was empty seemed to frustrate him further. He lunged at Shinichi.

Pinning him down just as Heiji got up off the ground to fight him, Kuroba smashed his lips on Shinichi's and Shinichi found the angle and strength to push him off just as quickly. He looked at Kuroba with a disgusted look, while Kuroba looked emotionally hurt.

“Kuroba, no.” Heiji growled, sounding firm and threatening as he pulled Shinichi back away. He shown the light back on the crazed being that was once of rational mind, and saw him already darting for his knife. “Kuroba, _NO!”_

This time, they weren’t able to dodge the knife.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A flashback to after Saguru lost his arm and eye and Kaito wishes he wasn’t watching his fiance die in front of him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for this chapter? Basically everything associated with losing a limb and an eye and going into traumatic shock, and blood.

Blood followed them as they walked down the hallway. Kaito was lightly pushing Saguru along, in fear of Saguru losing all motivation to move without the gentle support. It was a show of strength and the power of going into shock that he was even moving. The blood was coming off of him, dripping even with the hasty bandaging and plugging Kaito had done. 

Saguru was dying and there was little Kaito could do to stop that. Only to keep moving forward and beg silently that he wasn’t walking Saguru to his early grave. Saguru was only a month shy of nineteen. There was no reason aside from callous cruelty from the universe at large that he die this young. 

They were alone together, and Kaito knew if he couldn’t find a way out of here, he would be alone forever. Saguru was a lost cause to defend himself but Kaito would not give up on him even after his final breath. Saguru had already defended him today, losing everything because of it, and Kaito had to repay that debt with his own final breath if need be. 

Kaito didn’t want that for them. They were supposed to get married. Have children since both wanted them. Die old, not die here. 

When Saguru’s steps became uneasy, Kaito allowed them to stop. His body quickly cooled without the motion and the adrenaline could only do so much when it had been flowing through him for hours. Kaito began to shiver and Saguru was apparently still aware to take notice of that in his own way. 

"I think we lost Keiko." Saguru commented as the silence started to bother him, and Kaito’s shivering grew to teeth chattering. Saguru moved to hug some warmth into him but pain shot through him and he gasped. Something was pulsing numbly on his face and couldn’t make sense of it. He looked down at Kaito again, who he now noticed was lacking his shirt and was shivering in the damp cold of the house by only wearing his chest binder. “We’re also separated from Aoko and Koizumi. Maybe they could give you a shirt when we find them?” He spoke like Kaito couldn’t have possibly noticed that yet, but Kaito didn’t dare comment on it. Saguru’s mind was clearly elsewhere. It was a good sign he was even talking.

Kaito leaned into Saguru’s good side. "Saguru we have more important problems. You've lost your _arm_ and an _eye._ _"_ Kaito gestured to the side of Saguru that was pulsing weirdly and Saguru looked and saw the tattered remains of Kaito’s shirt layered over the bleeding area. 

It didn’t register much. Mind blanked out from going into shock, Saguru held up his severed arm that he was carrying around with his remaining arm and waved it in front of Kaito. "No, my arm is right here. Not sure about my eye..." Saguru blinked and something certainly felt off and he yelped in pain. More blood left the bandages over his eyes and dripped down his face and off his chin. His vision seemed off and everything _hurt._

“Don’t blink. Just...don’t. I told you this five times already.” Kaito looked at Saguru with all the love and exasperation that he held for the man, knowing he had to do everything in his power to get him out and get him to a hospital. Saguru wasn’t going to survive much longer physically or mentally even with Kaito’s shirt layered over the wounds. "And your arm is lost as in no longer attached to your body." 

Saguru let out a deep, dramatic sigh. "Oh." 

Heart sinking, Kaito reached up and cupped Saguru’s good side of his face lightly, trying to seem comforting even when no inputs were being processed correctly in Saguru’s mind. "Saguru, I love you so much. Please save your energy and be quiet before I start crying over you." Kaito had to save his tears and his own energy. He was growing tired but he had to stay strong for Saguru who had it so much worse.

Saguru stayed silent at that, simply looking confused. 

Kaito put a gentle hand over where Saguru's missing eye had once been without touching the bandaging. He gazed into his remaining brown eye. This deeper look caught Kaito to the fact that Saguru's contact lens was coming out of place and certainly that was more irritating than slightly blurry vision. Kaito pulled away, grabbed a disinfectant cloth from a package in his pocket, and wiped his hands before going in and taking out the lens himself. 

It was such a sign of trust even in his delusioned state that Saguru let him do it.

After discarding the lens, Kaito grabbed the severed arm from Saguru and looped his arm around the remainder and locked elbows with him. "I'll lead you from here. Maybe we’ll luck out and find an exit. Then you can get to the hospital and I can find some way to find the girls after I know you’re safe." Kaito tried to pull Saguru along but Saguru was firmly stuck in place this time. 

Kaito felt a deep sense of fear when he noticed Saguru was suddenly very alert and was looking around and straining his head without regard for any pain,"Kai, what's...that sound…?" Saguru always had slightly better hearing than Kaito so he knew to trust Saguru’s judgement of sounds. 

“Uh? I don’t know…” Kaito strained to listen as well, and his own blood ran cold when he realized what was quickly approaching. 

There was heavy breathing, and snarling and- 

With sudden clarity in his mind, he was back to the present. The formerly human creature was standing heaving and hissing, the knife through Heiji's arm as he stood protectively over Shinichi. He let go of the knife, and backed away whimpering as the wounded animal he was. He backed himself into a corner and pulled down on his ears. Too _familiar. What were...these thoughts. He didn't usually_ **_have those._ **

Who were all these people in his memory, and those in front of him, so angry at him? He didn't understand. He didn’t want to understand! 

What were they talking about before? There was still no exit. Never an exit when he got any desire to leave. _He_ would never allow it. _He_ was all that kept him here. _He_ was lonely _._ There was no reason to leave when _he_ would be alone in this house.

His breathing got heavy and his gut started to ache from both emptiness and fear of the unknown.

The house fell silent, all settling stopped in its path. No scuffling of the rats. No distant crickets. No screaming. The air pressure changed into something suffocating. As the scary people who invaded his home and _his love_ kept yelling at him to be more than just a monster of the house, only he knew they had woken up _the child._


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One monster awakens, and one monster backs down. Unknowing of the reasons why, Shinichi and Heiji gain a big hint Kuroba isn’t as far gone as he first seemed when he attacked them. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for this chapter are past cannibalism of a corpse, Heiji's stab wound, and basically the same wanton violence you probably expect at this point.

There was still sun filtering through the window, but the monster rose up from the floor, stretching out its claws and grumbling as it it spread out its never used wings. Its hand caught the window and used it to stand. It blinked slit eyes as it adjusted to the light, and then hissed scaldingly and slammed its hands down on the windowsill and yelled at the sight of the sun. 

Standing at full height from head to toe barely above the windowsill, the monster’s horns were half its size, twirling and twisting in several directions. The monster gazed bitterly out at the evening world the window provided. It bared its teeth when it watched a car drive by. Threat. Daytime was a threat! Why was it awake?

It tilted its head, large ears twitching as it listened for more threats. Its heart was stopped with every lack of breath for two decades, but at the sound of crying, the monster felt less empty, more enraged. 

There was something hurting his friend.

* * *

There was never a reason Heiji would not defend Shinichi, even if Shinichi was fully capable of taking care of himself. Heiji loved the other man and all, and no monster would change that. Even in pain Heiji stood strong and tall in front of Shinichi. 

Heiji and Shinichi’s yelling stopped when Kuroba started sobbing. Heiji grasped at the wound, dirty bone impaled through his arm and softly bleeding. His silence came from realization, and Shinichi seemed to share the same thought. He knew Kuroba was too far gone to be yelled at for this. Something they’d done had provoked him. 

It still didn’t change that Heiji was beyond livid at the action and in pain. Heiji’s knees buckled under him as he finally allowed himself to focus on himself. As long as Kuroba stayed on that side of the room, Shinichi would be safe. Heiji tried to come off as tough but could only wince and whimper at the pain. 

But Shinichi would be okay and that was all that mattered. 

“Hatt...Heiji...” Shinichi moved to Heiji’s side and carefully inspected the wound. “Heiji, I can’t take out the knife since its plugging the wound but I’m going to try my best to treat this.” Shinichi sounded far more tender than he had any right too and Heiji smiled in spite of his pain. Shinichi moved slowly, with glances over to Kuroba’s shaking and teary form to check if the movement would set off more violence from him. 

This situation was far more dire than they expected and neither had any major experience in treating it. If Kuroba didn’t quickly calm down, their only choice now was to recover themselves and find the exit quickly and return with plenty of officers and some mental health professionals to monitor the situation. 

“Shinichi you’re my best friend. You know that, right?” Heiji thought back on all that they’d gone through together. Everything had led to this. Shinichi had given so much and forgiven so much. He watched as Shinichi reached behind him to start rummaging in the backpack. “And as your best friend, I hope you won’t get mad when I tell you I _may_ have forgotten to pack the first aid kit." 

Hand stopping, Shinichi sighed. “Oh, Hattori…” 

“My bad. Sorry.” 

“It’s you with the bone sticking through your arm, not me.” Shinichi instead removed his jacket and started tugging at the fabric, hoping to rip it into scraps to tie the wound up instead until they could reach medical help. Which proved harder than expected. The fabric was either too strong for Shinichi or Shinichi’s efforts were not of the right angle to create the tear he so desperately needed. 

The very action, and very sound of pulling on fabric so intently seemed to spark something in Kuroba. His sobs lowered into breathy hiccups and he looked up at what was unfolding in front of him. He watched as Shinichi kept tugging on his jacket and then looked at the wound on Heiji’s arm, and then saw his own knife still sticking through it. 

He had…he had carved that himself. When...when _his love_ had been slaughtered in front of him and he’d spent a better part of time carrying the corpse around. He’d been so hungry…

Ao_ and Aka_...who? They..they had a fire. Aka_ was magic and had easily lit it. He had found them after…

His wounds had been patched up with what had been available. But he’d still been hungry. He remembered how disgusted Ao_ and Aka_ had been when he’d pulled off _his love’s_ remaining arm and tossed it onto the fire. He had ate off of it like the desperate animal he’d become even then. 

It disgusted him too, even now, but _his love_ had given him one last bit of strength, that allowed him the energy to carve the leftover bone into the sharpest point he could and use it to protect those whose still lived. Even though those two were gone now as well.

Those two had... _used words_ instead of just screaming at him, much like how these two had been doing. A fascinating concept.

Kuroba was looking at them with more concern than Shinichi and Heiji thought possible for the very thing that attacked them. More aware than he had been before. Bathed in the light of a flashlight lost on the ground, he looked more scared of them than they were of him. 

And then he stood. They froze. The king of bones was no less the monster than he was before. Shinichi grabbed Heiji’s hand on his good arm and pulled him to stand, and Heiji leaned on him for support. His legs were shaking and his arm hurt even more now.

Kuroba took a shuddering step forward, and they stepped back, ready to run. Kuroba looked curious by the action, then pointed a hand towards Shinichi’s jacket. “No…”

The monster’s voice, already deeply unsettling to hear in this cursed house, was far softer than Shinichi expected KID’s true voice to sound like, even in one word. 

“Kuroba, sta-” Shinichi started to warn, willing to fight now if he needed to.

“No.” Kuroba repeated, either to be contrary or just argumentative. He pointed at Shinichi's jacket again. 

Shinichi held it up. “Are you cold?” He was doing his best to decipher Kuroba’s actions. It wouldn’t do much to protect them if they didn’t run but knowing when it was safest to run was in their best interests. 

_“No.”_

It seemed _no_ was the only part of Kuroba’s vocabulary he recovered. 

Kuroba looked frustrated with them now, and then reached up for his crown and pulled it off. Shaking his head far more freely now as he placed the crown on the ground, he aggressively pointed to previously hidden bandaging around his forehead. It looked made of a piece of clothing, much like Shinichi had attempted.

“...you...know how to tear it properly?” Heiji tried, and Kuroba nodded. Kuroba tried to approach again but they continued to back up. “We’re not letting you near us until you say you’re sorry for stabbing me.” Heiji didn’t expect much and Shinichi gave him an exasperated look.

Frowning and exposing cat-like fangs, Kuroba, with seeming lucidity and look of hurt in his eyes, muttered out _“S..sor...sorry.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we have reached the transitional 'better' point in the phrase "it gets worse before it gets better."


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shinichi, Heiji, and Kuroba make it out of the mansion with more questions than answers. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a lifelong dedication to cats, and the rescue and befriending of them. Having even befriended feral cats, this really is just how cats be. 
> 
> Warnings for this chapter are: vomiting, and unsanitary petting conditions.

Something was familiar about these two, he noted now. When they’d woken him up, he’d only seen threats, not thinking to think, but now that he’d shined the flashlight over them several times while waiting for them to allow him to approach, he was sure he’d seen these people before. Somewhere in the past.

His memory was scrambled, and his mind was bleak but being around the fellow living for even these few minutes was already bringing back so much. All he’d had for so long were those who haunted this house with him. They weren’t much for conversation. 

Who were these people that their very presence incited such renewed vigor in his mind? All he could remember for so long was looking for his next meal, hoping he managed to catch one of the rats before it could scamper by. It was the only food here. 

Once he’d woken up early, to watch the sunset and a bird had landed in a tree near the window.

His hands had been under the window in an instant, hunger before reason, and the window had actually lifted up for him. He could have easily climbed out and jumped into the tree, and made a meal of the bird. 

But he hadn’t. He’d placed the window back down and gone to chase after another rat.

Now that conscious thoughts were returning to his decision making, he began to wonder why. His stomach growled as he teared his teeth into the jacket the two had hesitantly handed over, and he tore it the rest of the way with his hands. 

How could he make a meal of rats knowing he needed to eat to live, but hesitate over a bird. What was the difference?

Kuroba handed Shinichi the torn scraps, and as Shinichi tied off Heiji’s arm, he and Heiji had a stare off. 

“You hissed earlier just like my cat would and now these teeth…” Heiji put a hesitant hand on Kuroba’s head and ignored the deep grim, waiting for Kuroba to attack him. But Kuroba looked at him with his wide blue eyes, and then leaned into the touch. “I wonder…” Heiji put his hand deeper into Kuroba’s hair and then started to stroke his head. 

Shinichi looked at Heiji slack jawed, tugging tighter on the scraps than he needed to. “Hattori!"

"I'm bleeding out. Let me have this." Heiji continued to pet Kuroba, and Kuroba closed his eyes and smiled, and proved Heiji’s budding theory.

Kuroba was purring. Having just minutes ago stabbed Heiji, he was purring and rubbing his head against Heiji's hand. Seeing this display, Shinichi too stuck his hand into Kuroba's grimy, blackened hair, and found very not-human ears. 

“...Heiji, you distract him. I’m going to look at the magic book for curses that cause animal transformation as soon as I’m done here.” Shinichi’s eyes landed on the arm bones. The bite marks weren’t human but Kuroba didn’t appear to be human any longer. 

“Can do!” Shinichi wasn’t sure whether Heiji was going into traumatic shock or was genuinely delighted his attacker was just a large housecat.

Shinichi completed tying up Heiji’s arm and moved behind him to grab the magic tomb from the backpack. He had no idea how to navigate this and was willing to admit he and Heiji had been ill-equipped to take on this case. 

But they’d done it, hadn’t they? No sign of the girls aside from too many teeth on the now abandoned crown, but they had found one set of remains, and whatever Kuroba could be called. They had done some good coming here. 

If only they could easily get out. 

Shinichi spread open the book on the floor and grabbed one of the flashlights. It was clear on page one that nothing of this book made sense to him. Shinichi grabbed his phone from his pocket and meant to text Keiko with both the news and possible help deciphering the weird phrasing, yet found his phone out of service. 

_ No texts, no posts. _

Something in the house knocked out the four’s phones then. Shinichi cursed his luck but saw it as an answer why none of them had called for help. They had no way to. 

“Kuroba, do you understand any of this?” Shinichi decided to take the risk and see if Kuroba could spare any thoughts for the book. Instead he was ignored and Kuroba continued to enjoy the enthusiastic attention. So Shinichi placed the book in Kuroba’s lap.

Kuroba looked down blankly at the book, and then there was a tiny spark in his eyes. He hummed and looked at Shinichi, looking for direction. 

“Do you know where in the book we can find facts on animal transformation?” 

Looking down at the book again, Kuroba looked contemplative, and then quickly shuffled to a page in the middle and handed the book back to Shinichi. 

Instead of anything to do with animal transformations, Kuroba had flipped to a page on cursed gems. No mention of animal anything on the page. Neither on any surrounding pages that Kuroba might have mistakenly not flipped to. 

So the book was possibly a bust at least in terms of figuring out what caused the change in Kuroba’s physical being. Knowing he’d be at this for possibly a while, Shinichi reached into the bag again and pulled out his water bottle. 

Shinichi popped the cap and just as soon the water bottle was tugged out of his hand. Kuroba guzzled the water like a dying man in a desert. 

He was so thirsty...he drank the entire bottle, near total dehydration for two years. He needed this. His stomach didn’t agree. 

Kuroba began to gag, and then threw up the water back onto the floor. The loss of the water brought tears, and plenty of them. Shinichi and Heiji once again looked at him in pity. 

He couldn’t even keep down water. He felt he was going to die here in this room. It was how things were supposed to have gone anyways. He should have died in this room beside  _ his love.  _

“I’m going to die. I am going to die.” Kuroba rocked himself slightly and sniffled as he wiped away vomit from his chin. 

While different in level and tone from his  _ no _ s, once again, Shinichi was struck by the eeriness of Kuroba having such a sweet, sugary voice. Even saying those haunting words, his voice was so soft. Charming...potentially not even Kuroba speaking for himself. 

"Are you echoing Hakuba's voice?" Shinichi probed, reaching and rubbing Kuroba behind his ear in some sort of comfort. Kuroba didn't say anything to that. He tucked his head into his knees. Shinichi turned to Heiji. "He must be. That voice doesn't fit Kuroba." Shinichi may not have known Kuroba directly before that, but he felt sure of that. 

Heiji thought on that, tugging lightly on the clothing scraps. "...now that you mention it, he did sound like Hakuba just then...he must really miss him to mimic him."

"They were in love. Of course Kuroba would miss him." 

Heiji grinned at Shinichi. “I know I’d miss you if you died.”   
  
Kuroba shot up at that. "Hat.." Kuroba tried to say Heiji’s name, looking at Heiji with slight distrust. He was now using Shinichi’s voice. 

“How aware are you?” Shinichi wondered “Do you know what’s going on?” 

Once again, there was that blank look. 

Kuroba seemed to either be hiding how much he knew, forgot as quickly as he remembered, or most likely, was running merely on fumes. Heiji grabbed his own water bottle from the bag and handed it to Kuroba. “Only take a few sips, and slowly.” 

“Okay.” Kuroba did as instructed, further blurring all of Shinichi’s theories. What was going on in his head? 

This time Kuroba was able to keep the water down. 

Time was spent after that keeping Kuroba calm, and reading through the book. It didn’t take long for Kuroba to fall asleep on Shinichi’s side, and that was the most unsettling thing of all. Even though he’d done all he could to harm them, and had clearly perceived them enough as enemies to hate them, he now trusted them enough to sleep around them. 

After Kuroba’s soft sounds turned into snoring, the strangest thing of the evening happened. The door to the room reappeared. 

Heiji and Shinichi looked between themselves, then at the door, and then back at each other. “At the very least it gets us out of the room even if it's not the exit anymore.” Heiji pointed out. 

“You don’t need to tell me twice.” Shinichi picked Kuroba up and Kuroba snuggled into the hold. Kuroba didn't weigh anything. 

They were further shocked when the door was in fact the exit. As they left, there were still bits of light in the sky just as they promised Keiko. Heiji and Shinichi breathed fresh air and sighs of relief at the outside world. 

Reminded of another promise, Shinichi laid Kuroba down on the grass. The grubby man woke up and looked at the evening sky in wonder. Was this real? It couldn't be.  
  
Shinichi grabbed Heiji’s phone from Heiji’s pocket to text Keiko just in case it was only his phone acting up. He told her that they found someone and got excited key smashing in reply. He smiled at her excitement. He’d done it. He kept his promises for once. 

In the end they brought Kuroba to Agasa's house directly, Shinichi continuing to carry him. He seemed to prefer it to walking. A hospital would have been best for his health but bringing someone who seemed at least part animal now into a public area with prying eyes was not exactly a brilliant plan.

Keiko was waiting on the doorstep when they approached the house. Her eyes darted upwards once she heard their approaching footsteps, and she was up in an instant, running for them. 

“You really found someone alive?!” She was near tears from happiness and almost crashed into Shinichi, just as Shinichi put Kuroba down and helped him to stand. The two old friends looked at each other in shock. Keiko cried then, and hugged Kuroba.

“This is Kuroba. Kuroba, this is Keiko. Do you remember her?” Kuroba looked down at Keiko, and that previous familiar spark entered his eyes, and he hugged her back. His own tears started to pour down his cheeks. He didn’t realize with all his crying he had any tears left to shed. 

He was outside the mansion. Keiko was alive. He had assumed she was dead and he’d just never found the body. She was alive, and so was he. It all had to be a dream. He would enjoy it while it lasted. 

Shinichi and Heiji weren't sure whether to leave Kuroba alone with strangers but neither Shiho or Agasa could do as much as Heiji needed for his arm wound so they risked leaving for the hospital themselves, hoping to pass off the knife as a prop until they knew what to make of the case. 

Kuroba seemed content with Keiko anyhow.

When the two left, Keiko led Kuroba to where she had been mid-game with Nakamori Ginzo, who was sitting anxious ever since Keiko had called him over. The man knew what Keiko had been told but hadn’t wanted to wait and find it was all a lie.   
  
His heart lept when Keiko rushed to him, “Nakamori-san, they found Kuroba-kun.”    
  
Suddenly Ginzo’s world felt lighter, and he dared to hope, dared to look, and there at the door was in fact a man who looked like hell. He wanted to believe, he wanted to hope those detectives had truly done the impossible. 

He got off the couch, knocking over the game board to the floor, and cautiously approached Kuroba. This boy...man…was so broken and yet Ginzo’s heart knew what it loved. There was no way this wasn’t one of those he lost that day Aoko told him they were going to investigate a mystery. All four of them had been  _ his.  _ This was one of his kids, because his heart wouldn’t lie. 

Ginzo too dared to hug Kuroba, and Kuroba tucked his head into Ginzo's shoulder, and made a content, merping cat sound. "Dad…?" The very word alone made Ginzo’s heartache.

"No, Kaito. Your parents are...well, they won't be making it." 

Kuroba looked content with that, but why, Ginzo couldn’t say. 

“What happened?!” Ginzo questioned, looking between Keiko and Kuroba. “Where were you? Are you okay? You’re filthy...but you’re home...almost....Kaito.” Ginzo broke down. He couldn’t handle all these emotions. But happiness rose above all else.

“Those two left him on me without an explanation, but yes, he’s home. He’s going to be okay.” Keiko smiled, so much weight lifting off her shoulders. “We’re all going to be okay.”

Kuroba simply smiled on, speaking not a word. 

He did in fact need a bath, and Agasa happily pointed Keiko and Kuroba to the washroom. Keiko didn't want to strip Kuroba all at once, so got him to sit down on a stool in front of the sink. She filled the sink basin and then grabbed shampoo from beside the bathtub. 

She lathered in the shampoo, her hands becoming just as grimy as two years worth of must, dirt, and blood. Kuroba began to purr, and while confused, she found it endearing. She kept going until the soap turned the same color too and then grabbed bunches of hair and started ringing out the soap, pulling loose hair with it. She dipped her hands into the sink each time to wash away the grim.

But something about the hair coming off into her hands didn't seem right. Too light for Kaito's brunette hair even though it had been partly dyed when he went into the house. Had some of it gone white? Keiko looked at the sink water, and at the hair floating in it. 

Free of the dirt, the loose hair in the sink was blond. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For everyone who caught the foreshadowing all throughout the story to this twist, Congratulations, you were right. To all of those that hadn't figured it out ahead of time, don't worry this will all make sense by the next few chapters


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Saguru has a well needed shower, while Keiko and Ginzo try to process that he was the King of Bones all along.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for this chapter: More unsanitary descriptions like a blood vomiting scene and a teeth brushing scene, and brief self harm.

The two beasts faced off with one another, one pointing his knife at the small creature, and the creature baring its teeth. The man raised his knife as though to slay it, but it only seemed to be a blur in his mind and he had to focus on his weapon instead. 

He was the king now, slaying the previous rulers of this place. All except the prince.

The child seemed to be about to attack the man, and he was about to jump away, but instead the man dropped the knife he was holding. A show of friendship. 

"Mitzutani Hikaru, I assume. I'm-"

The man paused. He was…

Who was he?

* * *

This was a lot to take in for Keiko, and Keiko had yet to understand the situation she was in right now. Nonetheless, she was taking it in stride. Smile, deflect. She would need time later to process this, but Saguru needed her more.

“Okay, Saguru. Open up!” Keiko dangled the toothbrush in front of Saguru’s face, keeping her tone sweet and steady. Saguru opened his mouth, revealing hooked fangs and teeth with sharper points than usually found on humans. Keiko stroked his now cat-like ears as she meticulously brushed every stained tooth, mapping out all the new veins in his ears and finding they were indeed real. They twitched when Keiko brushed over sensitive spots in his mouth, and he purred when she brushed against the back of his ear.

She removed the tooth brush with a fake cheerful smile. "Spit!" 

As instructed, Saguru spit brown globs of used toothpaste and saliva into the bucket Keiko had set up beside the tub, while Keiko refilled the tooth brush. There was still many layers of grim in his mouth to get through. This time Saguru seemed to clue in and took the brush for himself and did the second brushing of his teeth. But, as soon as Saguru started brushing, he gagged and started throwing up black mucus into the tub and himself. Black but tinted red. 

Keiko started to panic, and held up Saguru's head and directed him to the bucket as he emptied the rest of his stomach into it. He groaned in misery and then raised his head to wipe off the vomit from his chin.

"Saguru...what's going on?" She whispered. There was just so much happening right and it was clouding her excitement that at least one of her friends was alive.

Her eyes had narrowed as she spoke, trying to locate the source of the sickness and even glancing at the vomit to garner a guess as to what had been settled in his stomach until now, but didn’t want to complete the thought. She saw his flushed expression, his quivering mouth. A sob in his throat was clearly growing and growing. He started scratching at his throat with his still unclipped nails. She grabbed his hands in a sharp movement. "Saguru! Don't do that! It's going to hurt!"

"Kurumurummmm." Saguru made an unintelligible sound, shaking his head, then said "No...It's not." He seemed ready to argue like the good old days, yet this was neither the time nor place for it. 

Keiko huffed fondly, still wrenching his hands away from his throat. "Yes, it will." After successfully stopping the self harm and giving Saguru a pointed look to not do it again, she reached into the tub and pulled out the pug. Then she retrieved the toothbrush from where it'd sunk into the bottom. She tossed it into the trash and grabbed down the showerhead. "Do you want to shower the vomit off or do you want me to do it?" 

"I can." Saguru stood up a bit in the tub, body riddled with scars, and muscles both toned and tense, grabbing for the showerhead midway and stayed standing. Keiko turned on the water for him and he started to wash off the new vomit.

With him performing an action on his own, Keiko washed and dried her hands and pulled her phone out to text Ginzo. She could have called for him or left to get him but she had no idea how Saguru would react to loud sounds or being left alone. 

_Somewhere, they made a mistake._

That was the text from Keiko that had Ginzo racing upstairs. Mistake? How had they made a mistake?! Had they lied? 

Ginzo burst into the bathroom and was greeted with the sight of a showering man that very much was not Kuroba Kaito, but was just as familiar. Free of the grim, his skin was pale with a light dusting of freckles, his eyes were blue, and his hair was blond. 

Saguru yelped at the sudden sound of the door opening and dropped the showerhead and looked at Ginzo with a fearful, wild gaze. Blond and blue eyed. Only one of those who had gone into the mansion had been blond. But Ginzo knew for a fact that only one of Hakuba Saguru's eyes were naturally blue, the other brown. When he'd last seen Saguru he swore he'd seen him with his brown contact lense in. This man had two blue eyes. 

Two enraged, scared eyes. Saguru got into a quick defensive position. Too quick for footing, and he stumbled and slipped in the still running water. Before he could make impact with the tub, Ginzo closed the distance and caught him, putting aside any building shock to focus on protection.

“Oof.” Saguru grumbled, regarding Ginzo with a suspicious look. “Dad, don’t do that.” 

This close, Ginzo spotted an unsettling detail. As Saguru continued to glare at him, Ginzo’s mind started to blank out because despite the matching kind of colour, the blue eyes still did not match. But the eyes matched elsewhere in his memory, even after two years. 

Ginzo covered up the side of Saguru's face that contained the lighter blue eye while Saguru squirmed. Without Saguru’s other side, Ginzo felt a shiver go down his spine as he realized he was staring not at a contact lens, but at the eye of his daughter.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The child had loving parents at one point.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This a mini, interlude chapter. The only warnings are a child going through terror and a terrible time.

Hikaru knew these were once his parents. They weren’t anymore. What was once his mother was on his tail, chasing him down for the hunt. His screams caught in his throat. If he screamed what was once his father would find him too. He couldn't face them both. 

He was scared. Sick and terrfied. Without help, the world would end. There was never any help. If he was wasn't strong he would die alone. He only recently found out what death was, and it terrified him. He was only six years old. He didn't want to cease to be. Not here. Not when he barely understood what death would entitle. 

He could see himself in this house only such a short time ago, happy and unafraid. With his mother and father. They were happy. They were safe. What he saw in them now would cause him to turn into the monster that never left. It was nothing new, this strange fear. This fear that made him run for his life after all the years his parents had loved him.

But what if his parents never actually loved him? They were monsters now but what if this was just revealing their true selves. How would he live without them? As the parents he knew. 

What would he do then? 

His mother caught up to him. Backed him up into the wall. Sent a claw towards him, leaving him on the ground. He cried out and his mother smiled. She was smiling at him and she was laughing, smiling. All she had wanted in the past was for him to be safe. She didn't know him too well now. 

A dark, sinister smile...that made him want to punch her. It couldn't make him safe as it had been when she'd tucked him into bed. Sang him to sleep. Chased him around the yard as they both laughed in delight. 

He couldn't stop screaming and crying. He couldn't stop looking at his mother. He could feel his eyes burning, as red as his flesh. Just watching her laugh...it had nothing to do with him. All he did was stare at her. Her face was beautiful...as she laughed, it would have been his mother. And it was beautiful, it was... 

He felt as though he'd lost his own identity. It was like all he felt was pain...

The child barred his own fanged teeth and attacked back.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The true horror of the situation is revealed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Talk of reuse of human bodies.

They did all they could do to convince the doctors and nurses that the bone was a prop and allow them to take it with them out of the hospital. But all those efforts were for naught. Shinichi and Heiji had talked them down into taking it in as evidence for a case and having it sent to the police evidence locker with promises that they were going right down to the police station themselves. 

Shinichi had his hand hovering over Inspector Megure’s contact information, ready to make that call ahead. He told himself he hesitated over the action because Megure was likely busy if not already off the clock at this point, but in truth something else was nagging at him. Was calling the police on the situation really the best course of action? 

He may be a detective but these days he admitted he didn’t really trust the police A detective chose to help even if it was only for money and could more easily be removed by a client if they strayed. A cop could be paid to pretend they weren’t about to turn on everyone and were much harder to remove from a case. 

They might do more harm than help here. Inspector Megure was an almost exception, a good man despite being a cop. Shinichi was sure he could talk to him and ask him to keep this off the books. He could even call Mouri, and hope that the drunkard was up to the challenge. Sato and Takagi as well, but they had a new baby and a toddler, so pulling them into this case could cause unnecessary stress on the already stressed out couple. 

But, no. This was more complex than just a simple murder or missing persons’ case. This was ugly and sick. More of misery and magic, than logic and deduction. 

Shinichi glanced over at Heiji, who was tugging at his new sling as they walked. Heiji had a wistful, sad look in his eyes. Heiji was puzzled over something but he hadn’t let slip anything since the mansion. Sighing, his shoulders sagging, Shinichi locked good elbows with Heiji and gave him a disappointed look. “Leave it alone. I’ll lead you.” 

“Yeah, yeah. I know.” Heiji smiled his usual stupid smile, and Shinichi knew in this setting sun, that this case would be a secret between him and Heiji. Heiji was the only one he could trust. Shinichi would have kissed him then, but it didn’t seem right for the moment even though he was a beautiful idiot. 

There would be no trip to the police station except another day to talk their way into getting the knife back. They were going back to Agasa’s and that was the only confidence Shinichi had in this case. 

* * *

And from a drawer in the hospital, there was a rustle. A knife trapped in a stuffy plastic bag was not the mere object it appeared. 

A hand reached out of the drawer. Then the entire ghost fell to the floor. It looked around the room it had tumbled into, its form barely stable, parts of it blinking in and out of existence as it moved. It was pale, far more pale than it had been when alive, but not covered in the red that had stained its death.

“Aoko?” The ghost whispered, fear pricking as it realized it was alone. “Saguru?” There was no response. “Come on guys. I’m not going to take this seriously.” It grinned as it looked around, expecting horror and seeing just a clean cut sanitized room. 

But for all the ghost’s looking for its friends, it was alone.

* * *

Dressed in one of Agasa's shirts and a pair of Shiho's pants, Saguru almost looked comfortable. With all the combined efforts, they’d gotten Saguru completely clean. His teeth were stained in a way that would never go away, and there were plenty of scars that would never fade, but he now was sitting in the kitchen sipping slowly on a luke-warm broth. 

The scars just seemed to keep piling up. As they awkwardly sat across from him at the table, Keiko and Ginzo kept each seeing more scars catch the light. Saguru had been brutalized. He was alive. 

His hair, already shaggy last either had seen him, was long down his back. Saguru had hissed when either had tried to bring scissors near him so for now it remained like that. His nails still had to be trimmed, and clicked absentmindedly on the mug as he stared down the soup. The cloud in his brain was starting to lift and he didn’t like it at all. 

They all had the same question on their minds. Was he really Saguru? Or just some chimera of mismatched people?

Shiho was nice enough to provide them with a bottle of wine. Only Keiko and Ginzo had been allowed to indulge in it as they had no idea how Saguru would take to it again. All of them knew the slippery slope that was using alcohol to cope, but this seemed like a valid reason to bring out the glasses with some form of self moderation. With a little mind numbing, they could stop worrying over every little thing for now. 

Finally, Saguru stopped slurping on the broth, and caught them in the eyes. They put down their wine glasses. He seemed to know now what they were thinking.

"Lost arm. Replaced. Kaito." Saguru traced along the base of his shoulders. "Lost eye. Replaced. Aoko." Saguru pointed to his eyes, showing he was aware how while both blue, his eyes did not match in shade. "Lost heart, replaced. Koizumi." He poked across his chest. 

It was a knowledge of pure horror. A final confirmation that the brutality had been to the very stretches of human suffering. 

“Are you Hakuba Saguru?” Keiko dared to ask, even though she didn’t want to confront any alternative answer.

Saguru leaned back in his chair, pushing some of his bangs aside, exposing even more scars.  
  
“Maybe.” With a snort, Saguru let out a broken laugh. “I don’t know much of anything anymore.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've decided to end this particular story at this stage of events but this plotline will be picked up in a sequel.


End file.
